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Workers Work–life Balance Should Be a Human Resource Priority

Received: 2 February 2022    Accepted: 23 February 2022    Published: 4 March 2022
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Abstract

Work and personal life are essentially two different scales of a spring balance and any adverse movement either at the workplace or in personal life would disturb the balance. Workers wouldn’t like to sacrifice their personal life because of their job imperatives. Opportunity to have good functioning at workplace and a wholesome life at home provides a basic framework for work-life balance. However, work-life balance has always been fraught with challenges which have, of late, assumed significant proportions, and is considered to be the most pressing concern for the workers today. It has been observed that the population of working couples has been on the increase, and this has led to greater scope for work-life conflict for them. Organizations are realizing that the personal life of workers directly affects their productivity and quality of work. Therefore, organizations feel maintaining work-life balance of workers makes a strong business case. This underscores the need for the organizations to promote work-life balance measures to safeguard their business interests. The organizations are introducing flexi-time work schedules, compressed work weeks and telecommuting for maintaining work-life balance of the workers. Research has shown that if work-life balance dwindles, there could be negative consequences for individual workers and also for the organizations. On the other hand, work-life balance has many positives for the workers at the individual level and for the organization as a whole. HR in the organization has a central role in formulation of a customized work-life balance policy for the organization. In this paper, we have made an attempt to highlight why work-life balance policies should be promoted and form a core part of an organization’s Human Resource policy in order to optimize their business interests. We have also touched upon certain recommendations and future direction of research on this subject.

Published in Journal of Human Resource Management (Volume 10, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.jhrm.20221001.11
Page(s) 1-4
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Work-life Balance, Human Resources, Worker, Organization

References
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[2] Valcour, M. (2007). “Work based resources as moderators of the relationship between work hours and satisfaction with work –family balance”. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92 (6), 1, 512.
[3] Igbinomwanhia, Osaro Rawlings., Iyayi, Omole. Iyayi, Festus. (2012). “Employee Work-Life Balance as an HR Imperative”. African Research Review. 6 (3), 110.
[4] Clark, S. C. (2000). “Work / family border theory: A new theory of work / family balance”. Human Relations, 53, 747-770.
[5] Lockwood, NR. (2003). “Work-life balance: Challenges and solutions”. Society for Human Resource Management Research Quarterly, Alexandria, VA.
[6] Allen, T. D., Herst, D. E. L., Bruck, C. S., and Sutton, M. (2000). “Consequences associated with work to family conflict: A review and agenda for future research”. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5, 287-308.
[7] Lowe, G. (2006). Under pressure: Implications of work-life balance and job stress. Human Solutions. Human Solutions Report 2006-07.
[8] Ojo, S. I., and Mordi, C, (2011). “Work-Life balance practices in the banking sector: Insights from Nigeria”. Ife Psychologica. IFE Centre for Psychological Studies. 2011.
[9] Elloy, D. F. and Smith, C. R. (2003). “Patterns of Stress, work-family conflict, role conflict, role ambiguity and overload among dual career couples: An Australian study”. Cross Cultural Management. 10 (1): 55-66.
[10] Reynolds, H. B. (1999). “It is not enough to offer work / life programmes-you need promote them”. Benefits Quarterly, 15 (2), 13-17.
[11] Parker, M., Wickham, M., and Fishwick, S (2006). “Exploring a work-life balance impact audit: An aid to informed consensus?” Proceedings of the 20th ANZAM conference on “Management: Pragmatism, Philosophy, Priorities”, 6-9 December, 2006. Central Queensland University, Rockhampton.
[12] Baral, R., and Bhargava, S. (2011). “HR interventions for work-life balance: Evidences from Organizations in India.” International Journal of Business, Management and Social Sciences, 2 (1), 33-42.
[13] Spinks, N. (2004). “Work-life balance: Achievable goal or pipe dream?” The Journal of Quality and Participation, 27 (3), 4-11.
[14] Dex, S. and Smith, C. (2002). The nature and pattern of family-friendly employment policies in Britain. Bristol: The Policy Press for Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
[15] Blair- Loy, M., and Wharton, A. S. (2002). “Employees use of work-family policies and the workplace social context”. Social Forces, 80, 813-845.
[16] Marriott Jr., J. W., Brown, K. A., (1997). The spirit to serve: The Marriott’s way. Harper Business.
[17] Tabacchi, M. H., Krone, C., Farber, B., (1990). A support system to mitigate manager burnout. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 31 (3 (November)), 32-37.
[18] Munck, B., (2001). Changing the culture of face time. Harvard Business Review. 79, (10), 125-131.
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  • APA Style

    Anurag Shanker, Shailesh Kumar Kaushal. (2022). Workers Work–life Balance Should Be a Human Resource Priority. Journal of Human Resource Management, 10(1), 1-4. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jhrm.20221001.11

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    ACS Style

    Anurag Shanker; Shailesh Kumar Kaushal. Workers Work–life Balance Should Be a Human Resource Priority. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 2022, 10(1), 1-4. doi: 10.11648/j.jhrm.20221001.11

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    AMA Style

    Anurag Shanker, Shailesh Kumar Kaushal. Workers Work–life Balance Should Be a Human Resource Priority. J Hum Resour Manag. 2022;10(1):1-4. doi: 10.11648/j.jhrm.20221001.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jhrm.20221001.11,
      author = {Anurag Shanker and Shailesh Kumar Kaushal},
      title = {Workers Work–life Balance Should Be a Human Resource Priority},
      journal = {Journal of Human Resource Management},
      volume = {10},
      number = {1},
      pages = {1-4},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jhrm.20221001.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jhrm.20221001.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jhrm.20221001.11},
      abstract = {Work and personal life are essentially two different scales of a spring balance and any adverse movement either at the workplace or in personal life would disturb the balance. Workers wouldn’t like to sacrifice their personal life because of their job imperatives. Opportunity to have good functioning at workplace and a wholesome life at home provides a basic framework for work-life balance. However, work-life balance has always been fraught with challenges which have, of late, assumed significant proportions, and is considered to be the most pressing concern for the workers today. It has been observed that the population of working couples has been on the increase, and this has led to greater scope for work-life conflict for them. Organizations are realizing that the personal life of workers directly affects their productivity and quality of work. Therefore, organizations feel maintaining work-life balance of workers makes a strong business case. This underscores the need for the organizations to promote work-life balance measures to safeguard their business interests. The organizations are introducing flexi-time work schedules, compressed work weeks and telecommuting for maintaining work-life balance of the workers. Research has shown that if work-life balance dwindles, there could be negative consequences for individual workers and also for the organizations. On the other hand, work-life balance has many positives for the workers at the individual level and for the organization as a whole. HR in the organization has a central role in formulation of a customized work-life balance policy for the organization. In this paper, we have made an attempt to highlight why work-life balance policies should be promoted and form a core part of an organization’s Human Resource policy in order to optimize their business interests. We have also touched upon certain recommendations and future direction of research on this subject.},
     year = {2022}
    }
    

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    Y1  - 2022/03/04
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    AB  - Work and personal life are essentially two different scales of a spring balance and any adverse movement either at the workplace or in personal life would disturb the balance. Workers wouldn’t like to sacrifice their personal life because of their job imperatives. Opportunity to have good functioning at workplace and a wholesome life at home provides a basic framework for work-life balance. However, work-life balance has always been fraught with challenges which have, of late, assumed significant proportions, and is considered to be the most pressing concern for the workers today. It has been observed that the population of working couples has been on the increase, and this has led to greater scope for work-life conflict for them. Organizations are realizing that the personal life of workers directly affects their productivity and quality of work. Therefore, organizations feel maintaining work-life balance of workers makes a strong business case. This underscores the need for the organizations to promote work-life balance measures to safeguard their business interests. The organizations are introducing flexi-time work schedules, compressed work weeks and telecommuting for maintaining work-life balance of the workers. Research has shown that if work-life balance dwindles, there could be negative consequences for individual workers and also for the organizations. On the other hand, work-life balance has many positives for the workers at the individual level and for the organization as a whole. HR in the organization has a central role in formulation of a customized work-life balance policy for the organization. In this paper, we have made an attempt to highlight why work-life balance policies should be promoted and form a core part of an organization’s Human Resource policy in order to optimize their business interests. We have also touched upon certain recommendations and future direction of research on this subject.
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Author Information
  • Department of Business Administration, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, India

  • Department of Business Administration, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, India

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